Tag Archives: red onions

Best recipes never come alone. They come with friends, with ‘no-plans’ evenings and intuition boosts. This one started from Li’s proposal to make some vegan tripe soup, a supposedly superdelicious substitute dish for the original one. Not that I’d have any idea about the resembling taste… okay let’s do it!

That being said, we haven’t cared much about the recipe and basically wove around what was in the fridge. Back home, after one or two more experiments likewise, I ended up with this beautiful yellowish sauté, where leek slices, celery shreds and squash pieces are mildly spiced and dipped together with pleurotus in a rich cashew cream. Here’s how it goes:

Turn the veggies in the size you wish them to be, having in mind the texture you want to create. Being essentially a stir-fry, it won’t stay more than 15-20min over the fire, so move quickly.

Prepare the cashew cream by mixing soaked cashew nuts with water, lemon and salt in a high power blender.

Prepare the seasoning: crush a few cloves of garlic, cut in very fine pieces some ginger and ground some pepper. Now fry them in little oil and be sure they won’t stay as long as to be making a crust. Scramble in your favorite kind of tofu cut in small pieces (I used smoked tofu) and sprinkle pepper and turmeric and/or chilly flakes, if you wish.

Immediately after add the mushrooms and cover until they turn watery. Remove the lid and cook 5 minutes more, then add celery, leek and only at the end, squash. Stir gently from time to time to keep texture firm. Pour the cashew cream and serve with kale or spinach leaves and optional, slices of raw red onions. Squeeze more lemon to your taste. Enjoy!

Each time my taste buds come in contact with a new combination of tastes, I’m completely drawn to re-creating and further improvising on the alchemy. Was the same case with this great salad proudly introduced by my uncle back in summer. Firstly, I made it vegan (it did contain fish) and secondly, I kept introducing ingredients that would suit – color wise and texture wise – the base of the dish made out of kidney beans. Which by means of richness makes it totally a main dish, though by means of the preparation process is as simple as a salad.

All you have to know is to give plenty of time to the boiling of the beans, so you have it tender, mingling nicely with the crisp veggies As always, pressure cooking is the best option. Also, pay attention to the juiciness of the composition as some of the ingredients – the beans and the dried tomatoes – may progressively suck in the dressing. A good moment to practice indulgence :))

Below you have the list of ingredients, but feel free to make your own choices!

Though autumn is here, I bet you can still find at the market one of those pulpy juicy tomatoes that delighted your taste buds all summer long. That’s plain easy, so don’t get frustrated if you won’t have the perfect ripe mangoes (always consider the Mediterranean for that!) You can of course try the canned ones, but pay attention they’re not totally soaked in sugar syrup.

So that’s basically the recipe for one of the best salads that you can have in a snap. Finely slice some red onions and red capsicums and add chilly flakes and olive oil to your own taste. I served it next to my favorite kind of rice, the very special Basil Rice <3